Improved apparatus for reefing top-sails and courses of ships



UNITED STATES PATENT Ormes.-

EBEN A. SAVYEIt AND JAMES B. NICHOLS, OF PORTLAND, MAINE.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REEFING TOP-SAILS AND COURSES 0F SHIPS.,

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,01 E, dated November 25, 1862.

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, EBEN A. SAwYnn and JAMES B. NICHOLS, both of Portland, in the county of Cumberland and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Reeng TopSails and Courses; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in Which- Figure l is a front View of a top-sail77 and course fully set to the wind. Fig. 2 is a rear View of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse section showing the top-sail reefed and the course in a like condition.

Similar letters of reference in the several figures indicate corresponding parts.

Our invention consists, rst, in an arrange- :ment oflooped spilling 7 lines running down from the top-mast cross-tree through a jackstay of the top-sail yard, and then behind and through the top-sail or close reef thereof, and then up in front of the top-sail to the top-mast cross-tree, so that when the top-sail yard is lowered away the wind is caused to spill out of the top-sail, and said sail confined in a condition for being conveniently reefed from the deck.

It consists7 second, in an arrangement of a series of brail77 lines attached to the topsail or to the fore or main yard, and running down in front of and through the sail to and through a series of blocks of the yard, and then down to the deck. Vith this arrangement on the top-sail yard, the top-sail may be reef simultaneously with the lowering away of the yard from the deck, and without employing a rolling yard or a double top-sail yard or any of the complicated systems heretofore devised; and with it applied to the main or fore yard the courses may be hauled up in position and confined, ready for reeng in the ordinary way.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings.

A is the lower mast, and B the top-mast, of usual construction.

C is the fore or main yard, and D the topsail yard; E,the top-sail halyard, and F F the fore and top sail lifts, all arranged and operated as usual.

G is the top-sail,attached by its head to the jack-stay a ofthe yard D, and by its clews to the yard C. That part of this sail known as the close-reet7 and included between the band b and the foot-rope c, is banded diagonally, as indicated at d d, the bands d d being roped from top to bottom, as shown at e e, the lower ends of the ropes e attaching to the foot-rope c, and their upper ends being confined to the sail by bulls-eyes, which iit in the spliced ends of the ropes and in perforations f f of lthe sail. Thus banding and roping the sail gives great strength and durability to it and enables it to bear the strain of the brail-lines.

H H are the spilling-lines,attached, rst, by one end to a top-mast cross-tree, I, passed down through the jack-stay or behind the topsail, then through the bulls-eyes of the closereef, and then up in front of the top-sail, and attached by their other end to the crosstree I, as shown. These lines, as will be seen in Fig. 3, hold in the surplus of the sail as it de.- scends with the top-sail yard,and consequently cause the wind to spill out of it. They also retain the sail in a position to be reefed from the deck or from aloft in avery short space of time, and while the vessel may be standing on her course.77

J J are the brail-lines attached to the after part of the top of the yard D, and run down forward of the sail G and through the bullseyes of the close-reei`, thence up aft of the sail to and through single and double blocks g gand down to the deck of the vessel. These lines, in connection with reef-tackle s s serve for reeiing the top-sail, and to bring them into play the sailors have only to lay hold of their loose lower ends and haul down upon them, as such operation draws in the slack of the lines, and causes the lines to securely reef the sail, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

The brail-lines, if extended in their use to the fore-course K, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, are applied to the lower yard and to the sail in substantially the same manner as to the top-sail, and so, also, if extended in their use to the main-sail, or to any other similar sail to which they are applicable.

Vhat We claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. Running the spilling -lines H through reef-band b and through the top-sail G at points near the top-mast B or center of the sail G, and extending their ends in front and in 3. The arrangement together on the top-sail rear of the sail up to the cross-tree I, substanofthe spilling-lines and brail-lines, in the mantialiy in the manner and for the purpose dener and for the purposes described.

scribed. EBEN A. SAWYER.

2. Providing the blocks g on the yards of JAMES B. NICHOLS. top-sails and courses,a.nd arranging breil-lines Witnesses: J J to passindependently of one another fromY PERLEY D. CUMMINGs, the top of the yards down in front of the sails, E. S. J AOOBs. Y through the sails,up behind the sails, over the Witnesses to J. B. N.:

blocks g, and down to the deck, in the man- STEPHEN R. THURsTON,

ner and for the purpose described. THOMAS H. TALBOT. 

